Our Home Improvement Continues!

Last night we made another trip to Lowe's. We went specifically looking for two outdoor light fixtures (one for the service door and the other for our back patio). We found both lights for less than $50! What a bargain!

A light similar to the one we bought for the service door:


A light similar to the one we bought for the back patio, but ours is slightly bigger:


Buying these two fixtures was yet another step in our attempt to completely rid our house of brass. One more brass light fixture to go! And, Ryan and Laura are going green! We bought compact fluorescent light bulbs for the outdoor lights. This is a HUGE step for me. I hate the look of fluorescent lighting. I do not think it's flattering indoors, but I figured I'd give it a try outside. As an additional bonus, we get brighter light for less wattage. Can't beat that! :)

The second thing we searched for at Lowe's was tongue and groove beadboard for the kitchen backsplash. We made the decision to go for the beadboard backsplash and Ryan's uncle Scott is going to help us install it. We had priced out sheets of faux beadboard panels, but Scott suggested the individual planks for a seamless look. I'm very excited to be finishing another element of our kitchen! The only question that remains is how to trim out the beadboard.

We are not doing a backsplash with our granite, so I have been scouring the internet for inspiration photos of beadboard backsplashes, especially those without a separate stone backsplash. What do you think of these options:

Thick molding where the beadboard meets the countertop:


Or thinner shoe molding:


Or no molding:


Thoughts?

Weekend (and Monday) Recap

This past weekend we traveled to Chicago for Soniya and Erick's wedding. It was so fun to play tourists in our former hometown. We stayed at the downtown Marriott, window shopped on Michigan Avenue, ate at Lou Mitchell's and walked around the Loop. It was so fun being back in the city. It always makes me miss it so much!

The weather was perfect and the wedding was absolutely beautiful. It was our first traditional Indian wedding and it was a blast! The food was excellent, the wedding decor was stunning and the bride looked absolutely radiant. We had a really great time thanks to our hosts. Congratulations Soniya and Erick!

Last night we finally finished the dreaded fence project. It is DONE. I just hope our stain lasts for 5 years or at least until we sell this house. We will not be doing this ourselves again!

**I still cannot find my camera cord, so as soon as I find it (or just end up buying a new one), I'll post pics of everything.

Fun Things for August

1. My new pedicure color, A Rose at Dawn, Broke by Noon. From OPI's Las Vegas collection. I've had this color before, but it has been re-introduced into my life. It's a fun, flirty summery color and I love it!



2. The Olympics. Call me a dork, but I LOVE the Olympics! I am setting the TiVo to catch all of the great action in HD!



3. Two weddings. We're attending two weddings for two great friends this month in Chicago. The first is Soniya's wedding, taking place this weekend. The second, is my dear sorority sister, Amber at the end of the month.

4. Our granite install later this month!

5. Our annual lake weekend! Taking place the weekend of August 15-17.

Happy Birthday Dad!

My daddy is 59 today! Happy Birthday Dad!

OMG. Hilarious.

Ryan and I both frequently read a blog called Flip Side Sports. It is cleverly written by a group of guys that are IU Basketball fans (as well as fans of various other things). Even if you're not an IU fan, you should still check them out every once in a while. Ryan was perusing tonight and came across this post about one of our favorite duos, Hall & Oates. Laugh like I'm joking, but know that I'm not. We have every one of their greatest hits on our iPod. But, I digress...

If you are even remotely humored by Hall & Oates, you have to check out their post and watch the accompanying YouTube video. It's priceless!

http://flipsidesports.blogspot.com/2008/07/friday-afternoon-randomness-hall-oates.html

Enjoy! :) **Note, the Flip Side guys are not for the easily offended.**

Granite Day is August 27!

The granite peeps called today to give us our install date, Wednesday, August 27! When we first met with them, they told us the average time from field measurement to install was 8 weeks. If everything goes as planned, we will have ours in exactly 4 weeks. I'm so excited--it will be here in no time!

**Update on my photos...my camera cord is still MIA. :( So that means no photo updates. Boo.

My Last 2 Weeks.

I just finished two weeks of work hell. Two hearings and two full day mediations, plus client phone calls after hours and on the weekends. Dealing with divorces and family dramas is exhausting. Seriously, it felt like I had two law school finals weeks in a row. I billed 73 hours in those two weeks, which makes my boss pretty happy. To you 9-5ers that may not seem like a lot, but every lawyer I know will tell you that it takes 8 hours of actually being at work just to bill 6. I'm glad it's over.

So, how did I spend my first relaxing weekend? I could have lounged by the neighborhood pool, taken a relaxing trip to the lake or sipped margaritas at an outdoor cantina, but no. Instead, I spent the weekend helping Ryan stain our fence.

It has become THE summer project of our neighborhood and it absolutely sucks. I think our neighbors will be as happy as we are once it's finished. They will no longer have to hear the annoying sounds of the pressure washer or the paint sprayer. Nor will they have to look at our partially completed project any longer. It would have been done yesterday, but we have officially bought our local Sherwin-Williams out of semi-transparent stain. Since we ran out of stain, tonight was to be the night that we finished the project. Instead, it's supposed to rain every night this week and then we are leaving for a wedding in Chicago on Friday afternoon. I guess the project will have to wait another week. The only good thing about this project is that our fence looks damn good. Even the neighbors think so.

I will post some progress pics once I find that little cord to connect the camera to my computer.